Elon Musk’s Twitter Files part 4 was released by Michael Shellenberger late Saturday.
President Trump was ultimately banned from Twitter on January 8, 2021.
According to journalist Michael Shellenberger, on January 7, senior Twitter execs:
The removal of Donald Trump: January 7
– create justifications to ban Trump
– seek a change of policy for Trump alone, distinct from other political leaders
– express no concern for the free speech or democracy implications of a ban
The Twitter Public Policy in 2018 read: “Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial Tweets would hide important information people should be able to see and debate. It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions.”
However, after January 6, the pressure to ban Trump grew.
Michelle Obama, the tyrants at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and others publicly called on Twitter to permanently ban Trump.
Jack Dorsey was on vacation from January 4-8, 2021, so all decisions regarding Trump were delegated to Yoel Roth and Vijaya Gadde.
In 2022, 99% of Twitter’s staffers donated to the Democrats.
In 2017, Yoel Roth tweeted that there were “ACTUAL NAZIS IN THE WHITE HOUSE.”
On January 7, Jack Dorsey emailed employees saying Twitter needs to remain consistent in its policies.
At 11:30 PM, Yoel Roth DMs his colleagues excited about a new policy that can be used to restrict more speech.
All of the members of Yoel Roth’s “Trust and Safety” team were excited about the new policy so they can permanently ban conservatives.
Yoel Roth’s colleagues wanted to know if the decision means they can finally ban Trump.
“Yoel Roth’s colleague’s query about “incitement to violence” heavily foreshadows what will happen the following day.” Shellenberger said.
“On January 8, Twitter announces a permanent ban on Trump due to the “risk of further incitement of violence.”” he said.
On January 8, Twitter says its ban is based on “specifically how [Trump’s tweets] are being received & interpreted.”
The only concern for free speech and democracy over banning Trump came from a junior person within the company: “This might be an unpopular opinion but one off ad hoc decisions like this that don’t appear rooted in policy are imho a slippery slope and reflect an alternatively aqually dictatorial problem. This now appears to be a fiat by an online platform CEO with a global presence that can gatekeep speech for the entire world – which seems unsustainable.”
Yoel Roth and his colleagues were careful not to blacklist the term “stopthesteal” so they don’t risk “deamplifying counterspeech” that validates the election.
In other words, Twitter didn’t want to risk suppressing any leftists by blacklisting “stopthesteal.”
Yoel Roth and his colleagues found a way to only punish conservatives and spare left-leaning accounts.
Twitter employees struggle with whether to punish users who share screenshots of Trump’s deleted J-6 tweets.
One employee said he doesn’t want to give strikes to the Twitter users who are criticizing Trump.
If the Twitter user hates Trump *and* objects to Twitter’s censorship, the tweet will still be deleted, but the left-wing account won’t receive a strike.
Only pro-Trump tweets with Trump’s J-6 screenshots will be hit with a punishing strike.
Twitter changed its public policy in order to justify banning Trump’s account.
Yoel Roth said, “In this specific case, we’re changing our public interest approach for [Trump’s] account…”
Yoel Roth pushed for a permanent suspension of Congressman Matt Gaetz.
